FLIMSY BAGS OUT AT BIG DRUG STORES

SAN FRANCISCO Plastic sacks have been banned at supermarkets for 6 months

Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, May 20, 2008

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Anna Sager of San Francisco, Calif. holds newly purchased goods in a new degradable (not necessarily biodegradable) Walgreens bag in front of the 850 Market Street store on Monday May 19, 2008 in San Francisco, Calif. The store is in the process of phasing out non-degradable plastic bags in preparation for the city-wide ban on them starting May 20, 2008.
Photo by Mike Kepka / San Francisco Chronicle less

Anna Sager of San Francisco, Calif. holds newly purchased goods in a new degradable (not necessarily biodegradable) Walgreens bag in front of the 850 Market Street store on Monday May 19, 2008 in San Francisco, ... more

Photo: Mike Kepka, SFC

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###Live Caption:Anna Sager of San Francisco, Calif. holds newly purchased goods in a new degradable (not necessarily biodegradable) Walgreens bag in front of the 850 Market Street store on Monday May 19, 2008 in San Francisco, Calif. The store is in the process of phasing out non-degradable plastic bags in preparation for the city-wide ban on them starting May 20, 2008.
Photo by Mike Kepka / San Francisco Chronicle###Caption History:Anna Sager of San Francisco, Calif. holds newly purchased goods in a new degradable (not necessarily biodegradable) Walgreens bag in front of the 850 Market Street store on Monday May 19, 2008 in San Francisco, Calif. The store is in the process of phasing out non-degradable plastic bags in preparation for the city-wide ban on them starting May 20, 2008.
Photo by Mike Kepka / San Francisco Chronicle###Notes:(cq)###Special Instructions:MANDATORY CREDIT FOR PHOTOG AND SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE/NO SALES-MAGS OUT less

###Live Caption:Anna Sager of San Francisco, Calif. holds newly purchased goods in a new degradable (not necessarily biodegradable) Walgreens bag in front of the 850 Market Street store on Monday May 19, 2008 ... more

Photo: Mike Kepka

FLIMSY BAGS OUT AT BIG DRUG STORES

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Walgreens and Rite Aid stores may no longer hand out those ubiquitous flimsy plastic bags to customers in San Francisco as a groundbreaking city law banning plastic sacks at some major retailers expands today to include chain pharmacies.

The new restrictions come six months after the ordinance banning plastic bags at large supermarkets went into effect, a law hailed by city leaders and environmentalists. Other cities - as close as Oakland and as far away as Paris - have passed bans of their own since then, and industry-friendly China will bar stores from handing out free plastic bags come June 1. Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who sponsored the ordinance, has even garnered a bit of celebrity for his work on the issue, including a recent spread in People Magazine.

Mirkarimi and officials at the Department of the Environment, the city agency charged with enforcing the ban, say the ordinance has been such a success that they are fielding inquiries on a daily basis from other cities considering similar laws.

"I have rarely seen an idea that has traveled with such velocity throughout the country and abroad," said Mirkarimi, who admits surprise at its popularity. "I am hearing from cities in red states as much as blue states. It's very exciting. It transcends partisanship and borders."

The law is meant to decrease waste and litter and curb dependence on petroleum, as the bags are oil-based.

No official figures are available to quantify the difference since the bag ban at major grocery stores took effect on Dec. 1, but Department of the Environment spokesman Mark Westlund estimated that the ban at grocery stores alone will take about 150 million plastic bags out of circulation annually. The program has been so successful at Whole Foods, he said, that the retailer is now phasing out plastic bags throughout its entire chain.

And Robert Reed, a spokesman at Norcal Waste Systems, the city's garbage-collection company, said there are 10 t0 15 percent fewer plastic bags at the Pier 96 recycling facility. San Francisco does not allow residents to recycle soft plastic, but many people still put the sacks in their blue recycling containers, causing headaches at sorting facilities.

"We have to shut the plant down twice a day so workers can use box knives to cut the bags out of the conveyor belt and other recycling equipment," Reed said, adding that the process takes between 12 to 16 man hours every day.

The recycling plant manager's "feeling is that the city needs to be more aggressive about banning them, getting them out of all retail stores in San Francisco," Reed said.

That idea - a complete plastic bag ban - is still on the table, Mirkarimi said. But city leaders first wanted see how grocery stores and pharmacies react.

While some critics remain - the California Grocers Association argues officials should instead educate residents about using reusable and recyclable bags - city officials said most retailers have been happy to comply.

Walgreens, which has 58 stores in San Francisco, is still working with city officials to identify paper bag suppliers, a spokeswoman said Monday, but intends to "meet or exceed" the law's requirements.

Currently, customers who visit Walgreens will receive a plastic bag, but one that is reusable - the ordinance allows stores to hand out bags made of cloth or other washable material, as well as pouches made with "durable" plastic at least 2 1/4 millimeters thick. The bags, while sturdier, still cannot be recycled in San Francisco.

Other cities have faced much sharper criticism and more serious opposition than San Francisco. Oakland's bag ban, passed in June 2007, was put on hold last month after a judge agreed with a group of plastic bag makers and recyclers who sued because the city did not conduct an analysis of the ban's environmental impacts. The City Council has not yet decided whether to conduct the environmental analysis or appeal the judge's decision, a spokesman at the city attorney's office said.

And officials in the North Bay town of Fairfax, assisted by several environmental groups, announced Monday that they would take the ban to the ballot box after an ordinance passed by their City Council was threatened with litigation by the same group, the Coalition to Support Plastic Bag Recycling. The group's leaders say they didn't challenge San Francisco's ban because they were not organized at the time it was passed.

Michael Mills, the coalition's attorney, said that elected officials should consider all of the facts and consequences of the bans and argued that compostable plastic bags and paper bags could be just as harmful to the environment as traditional plastic bags. Mills and Dave Heylen, a spokesman for the California Grocers Association, say the number of paper bags being handed out at grocery stores has increased exponentially since the ban was instated.

Growing trend

Other jurisdictions that are considering or have passed plastic bag bans:

-- London

-- Paris

-- Westport, Conn.

-- New Haven, Conn.

-- Boston

-- Baltimore

-- Maui

-- Portland, Ore.

-- Arlington, Texas

-- Oakland

-- Fairfax

Source: Chronicle research

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